I'm really digging the Undead Warlock, particularly its potential for Death Knight related goodness. In building upon that, I'd appreciate any input on the following new Eldritch Invocation, to bump up the possibility of adding some 'Tankability.'
Eldritch Armor
Prerequisite: Pact of the Blade
When you gain temporary hit points due to a Warlock Class Feature, the amount is doubled.
For clarity, this would provide a max of 26 temporary hit points at 3rd level ((1d10+3)x2), and 40 temporary hit points at 10th level. Given that temp hit points don't stack, this doesn't feel overpowered...
This is building upon the Undead Warlock's Form of Dread ability -
Form of Dread
1st-level Undead feature
You manifest an aspect of your patron’s dreadful power. As a bonus action, you transform for 1 minute. You gain the following benefits while transformed:
You gain temporary hit points equal to 1d10 + your warlock level.
Once during each of your turns, when you hit a creature with an attack, you can force it to make a Wisdom saving throw, and if the saving throw fails, the target is frightened of you until the end of your next turn.
You can transform a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
The appearance of your Form of Dread reflects some aspect of your patron. For example, your form could be a shroud of shadows forming the crown and robes of your lich patron, or your face might transform into bat-like features due to your vampire patron.
Technically, Pact Magic is a Warlock class feature, which would make Armor of Agathys an option. This would be far too OP.
Excluding that, Fiendish Vigor would give a 2nd level Warlock up to 16 temp hp, which they could spam every single round, if they wanted to. The amount is less important than the ability to spam it repeatedly.
Further restricting it to an invocation that only works with a single subclasses feature is far too narrow to be practical.
I would argue that those temp points would be coming from a spell, not directly from a feature... but adjusting the wording there is pretty easy. I worded it as is intentionally to allow for other features that might become available, either homebrew or RAW.
I agree that AoA would be far too powerful with that bonus... although Fiendish Vigor would burn through Actions. As a DM, I would abuse the character that tried to abuse that pretty seriously.
Regardless - what do you think of the balance/impact with FoD? I'm going to be running it by the table this weekend, and would appreciate input ahead of time.
Fiendish Vigor is explicitly an at-will ability that has been restricted to a 1st level effect so that it can be spammed, by design. With that in mind, it really can't be "abused". Doubling its potency would be a design issue, not a player issue. Since Invocations can be swapped out at each level, a player would be strongly encouraged to take both invocations until it stopped being the obvious choice.
With an Enhanced Fiendish Vigor, a player can safely jump from 40ft cliffs, trigger dangerous traps, and walk through fire without any real risk. It basically makes them immune to the suite of minor obstacles designed to whittle down a party's resources. (Not inherently a problem, but more appropriate for level 12~15)
As for how it plays with Form of Dread, I'd say that it's slightly weaker than a Feat, which is on target. However, The Fiend is likely to get more mileage out of that kind of invocation because it tops off every time an enemy is dropped to 0.
My concerns would be partially mitigated by adding "Prerequisite: 5th level", as that would at least eliminate the window where it would be most problematic.
I'd say go for it at your own table where you can build it around your player, but I don't think it can be safely designed for public use.
Greetings all -
I'm really digging the Undead Warlock, particularly its potential for Death Knight related goodness. In building upon that, I'd appreciate any input on the following new Eldritch Invocation, to bump up the possibility of adding some 'Tankability.'
Eldritch Armor
Prerequisite: Pact of the Blade
When you gain temporary hit points due to a Warlock Class Feature, the amount is doubled.
For clarity, this would provide a max of 26 temporary hit points at 3rd level ((1d10+3)x2), and 40 temporary hit points at 10th level. Given that temp hit points don't stack, this doesn't feel overpowered...
This is building upon the Undead Warlock's Form of Dread ability -
Form of Dread
1st-level Undead feature
You manifest an aspect of your patron’s dreadful power. As a bonus action, you transform for 1 minute. You gain the following benefits while transformed:
You can transform a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
The appearance of your Form of Dread reflects some aspect of your patron. For example, your form could be a shroud of shadows forming the crown and robes of your lich patron, or your face might transform into bat-like features due to your vampire patron.
(cross posted to the Homebrew forum as well...)
Re: Eldritch Armor
Technically, Pact Magic is a Warlock class feature, which would make Armor of Agathys an option. This would be far too OP.
Excluding that, Fiendish Vigor would give a 2nd level Warlock up to 16 temp hp, which they could spam every single round, if they wanted to. The amount is less important than the ability to spam it repeatedly.
Further restricting it to an invocation that only works with a single subclasses feature is far too narrow to be practical.
Thanks for chiming in, Memnosyne....
I would argue that those temp points would be coming from a spell, not directly from a feature... but adjusting the wording there is pretty easy. I worded it as is intentionally to allow for other features that might become available, either homebrew or RAW.
I agree that AoA would be far too powerful with that bonus... although Fiendish Vigor would burn through Actions. As a DM, I would abuse the character that tried to abuse that pretty seriously.
Regardless - what do you think of the balance/impact with FoD? I'm going to be running it by the table this weekend, and would appreciate input ahead of time.
Fiendish Vigor is explicitly an at-will ability that has been restricted to a 1st level effect so that it can be spammed, by design. With that in mind, it really can't be "abused". Doubling its potency would be a design issue, not a player issue. Since Invocations can be swapped out at each level, a player would be strongly encouraged to take both invocations until it stopped being the obvious choice.
With an Enhanced Fiendish Vigor, a player can safely jump from 40ft cliffs, trigger dangerous traps, and walk through fire without any real risk. It basically makes them immune to the suite of minor obstacles designed to whittle down a party's resources. (Not inherently a problem, but more appropriate for level 12~15)
As for how it plays with Form of Dread, I'd say that it's slightly weaker than a Feat, which is on target. However, The Fiend is likely to get more mileage out of that kind of invocation because it tops off every time an enemy is dropped to 0.
My concerns would be partially mitigated by adding "Prerequisite: 5th level", as that would at least eliminate the window where it would be most problematic.
I'd say go for it at your own table where you can build it around your player, but I don't think it can be safely designed for public use.